U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

EERE Financial Opportunities

DOE to Offer $52.5 Million for Hydrogen Research

April 6, 2006

Honda leased its fuel cell vehicle to this California family last year, but President Bush wants fuel cell vehicles to be an option for all of today's children by the time they are ready to drive.Credit: Honda

Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman announced on April 6th a three-year,
$52.5-million solicitation to support basic research in hydrogen
storage materials, catalysts, and membranes. The solicitation, to be
released later in April, will help overcome the scientific challenges
associated with the production, use, and storage of hydrogen. It will
also address the challenges identified in the report "Basic Research
Needs for the Hydrogen Economy," released by DOE last year. The
solicitation supports President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, which
aims to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that meet consumer
requirements by 2015, thereby allowing a mass-market penetration of
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020. See the DOE press release, the
President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, and the DOE report (PDF 7.2 MB). Download Adobe Reader.

Secretary Bodman made the announcement while speaking to the 2006
World Congress of the Society of Automotive Engineers. During his
speech, Secretary Bodman implored all automakers to make vehicles that
run on clean burning E85 fuel, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol with
15 percent gasoline. The Secretary announced that DOE will soon
solicit proposals for public-private partnerships to make E85 more
widely available. Secretary Bodman also expressed his desire to see
automakers expand their hybrid-electric vehicle line and noted that
DOE is requesting more funding for advanced batteries to allow hybrid
vehicles to achieve higher fuel efficiencies and travel farther on
all-electric power. See Secretary Bodman's speech on the DOE Web site.